Republicans Pull Their Shades Down;Democrats Don't, But Should

Eric Rauchway has a fascinating piece up at TNR where he argues that the Republicans are the party hounded by “the inability to govern” (while the Dems tend to govern too much) (link, and HT Mark Thoma). Let’s stipulate that this little foray is unlikely to be greeted with universal acclaim, but let me suggest one particular (among many?) ways in which it is surprising or original.

That is: ever since Lincoln, the Republicans have been able to sell themselves as the “respectable party,” the “real America,” casting the Democrats more or less as outliers. I’m sure this has something to do with the party’s anti-slavery roots (boy, those were the days…) and in particular, the Democrat’s laboring under the taint of complicity with the old south.

But it has long outlasted all that. Even today, Republicans seem to believe—and seem successful at persuading others—that the presidency really belongs to them and any Democratic president is at best a chair-warmer and at worst, a usurper.

I do not think that the presidency belongs to them, although I do think the Democrats tend to overgovern, and quite often, at that. But here is a spin: as a whole, Democrats tend to be better at wonkiness and the boring part of day-to-day operation. Stuff like this is bound to be irritating, particularly to people who find themselves governed.

In this perspective, the interesting thing is not that Democrats win some, but that they win at all. But the task of governing does have to be done, and every so often, you haul in the Democrats to clean up the mess.

One giveaway: consider how often deep-red states wind up with Democratic governors, even as they are spilling libertarian rhetoric (and sending Republicans to Congress). A more extreme example would be the “sewer socialist” mayors who survive with widespread popularity because they make the firetrucks run on time. Bernie Sanders, longtime Mayor of Burlington and now a senator from Vermont, is a dramatic example. Overseas, I don’t know about lately, but in Italy for a long time, Communist Bologna was by general assent the best-governed city, and not radical in any interesting sense.